Ohio will soon offer enhanced driver’s licenses. Here’s what they are and why they were (once) controversial

COLUMBUS, Ohio—A new Ohio law will let residents, at some point, get an “enhanced” driver’s license or ID card that they can use instead of a passport to enter Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean more easily.

The move is somewhat curious, as Ohio is the first state in years to join the handful of other states (all of which are along the Canadian border) that offer enhanced licenses. Ohio lawmakers initially rejected enhanced licenses nearly a decade ago amid civil-liberties concerns, but experts say those worries seem almost quaint now as technology has advanced.

Enhanced licenses, unlike traditional licenses or even “Real ID” cards that will soon be required to board airplanes, have a radio chip that broadcasts an identification number that border guards can use to access personal information beyond what’s printed on the license itself. That allows people to move more quickly through international border crossings without having to dig out and show a passport. It’s similar to Clear Check at the airport.

Ohio’s enhanced licenses and ID cards will cost $25 more than regular licenses or IDs, under the language of House Bill 23, the recently passed legislation authorizing them. Applicants will have to provide proof of their identity and citizenship, submit a fingerprint or other “biometric identifier,” and sign a form acknowledging the use of biometric match and radio identification feature, under the new law.

It’s still unclear when Ohio will begin offering enhanced licenses and IDs. The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles is awaiting guidance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to Bret Crow, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

When Ohio does start offering enhanced licenses, they will especially help truckers that carry freight between Ohio and Canada via Detroit or Buffalo, said Thomas Balzer, president of the Ohio Trucking Association.

“(It’s) definitely something that we consider a win, just to kind of help ease the burden of crossing the border,” Balzer said.

Christopher Nichols, a history professor and Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies at Ohio State University, agreed that enhanced licenses will help truckers and other Ohioans who frequently travel to nearby countries.

It’s a little like (TSA) PreCheck for flights, that (when) you have gone through in advance (and) you’ve gone through the screening …you will then be able to have enhanced access,” Nichols said.

But he said that group will be only a limited number of people.

Enhanced licenses were created as a way to help make border crossings easier in the wake of new security rules passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Right now, at least five other states offer enhanced licenses – Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington.

Several Canadian provinces offered them, too. But in recent years, they have stopped offering them, in part because of low demand.

Ohio lawmakers considered approving enhanced licenses in 2014. But the legislation stalled amid criticism from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, which worried that the radio chips could be exploited by identity thieves or used by government officials to follow people’s movements.

ACLU of Ohio representative Gary Daniels told lawmakers at the time that enhanced driver’s licenses would be “very useful to a government that seems intent on tracking our every move and transaction and communication with others.”

However, ACLU of Ohio spokeswoman Celina Coming stated that Daniels is now “unsure if our concerns remain.” Coming declined to offered additional comment.

Experts said that enhanced driver’s licenses are considered less of a potential problem now than they were nine years ago. That’s not because the potential for misusing the licenses has gone away, but because it’s much easier now to track or victimize people thanks to the proliferation of cell phones and greater availability of people’s personal information online, said Kevin McMunigal, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.

“I think people are looking at this as kind of, ‘Hey, this is sort of small change,’” McMunigal said. “It seems quaint to be worried about these little (radio) chips, given the other ways that people can be tracked.”

Nichols wondered why Ohio is moving now to offer what he said is “basically a thick driver’s license” when other, even more convenient security techniques are becoming more widely available, such as eye scans, and Canadian provinces have already decided to stop offering them altogether.

“I think there’s just a really limited market for this,” he said.

Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.